CRIMINAL RECORD – END OF SENTENCE

I was reading somewhere earlier today a discusion about criminal records and their effect on life once a custodial sentence has been completed.
Well from my own experience I can state quite categorically that anyone who thinks that the record finishes and has no lasting effect once a sentence has finished is very sadly mistaken.
The record follows throughout the rest of your life. In some circumstances a record can expire, or what is called be spent, after a certain time has lapsed but that is very muc only on paper.
The actual reality is that once you have a record you will face discrimination for the rest of your life and this discrimination will take various forms.
Foremost amongst these is with the police. Their first port of call when commencing an investigation is invariably to trawl their records for anyone who has a record of similar offences. Sometimes the record can be of a single offence thirty or more years previously but that seems not to be important, you will still be the prime target for the investigators.
However that isn’t the only time your record will be brought up. You will be disqualified on a blanket basis from employment. Obviously there can be a valid reason for this e.g. where a convicted child abuser is seeking employment with children, then that record must be available.
More often than not thougb it will be the simple fact that you have a record which disqualifies you. Your offence may have no relevance whatsoever to the job you are seeking but that doesn’t matter, you will still be disqualified.
You will also, although the banks won’t admit it, be banned from obtaining a bank loan or a mortgage.
I know of one Housing Association which refuses to offer tenancies to people with a criminal record.
So, to sum up, once you have a criminal record you will be faced with discrimination for the rest of your life and there is nothing you can do about it. Just do what I do and accept that it is there and cope with it as best you can.